Law Commons^™

Unpacking Affirmative Consent: Not As Great As You Hope, Not As Bad As You Fear, Jonathan Witmer-Rich

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article aims to “unpack” the concept of affirmative consent by identifying common assertions about affirmative consent that are false or misleading and by separating issues that are commonly conflated. The goal here is not to advocate either for or against the notion of affirmative consent but to clarify the concept to show what is at stake (and what is not at stake) in these debates.

Part II of this Article sets forth definitions of affirmative consent, particularly noting the difference between policies that require unambiguous agreements and those that do not. Part III addresses the various misconceptions identified above. …

Husbands Who Drug And Rape Their Wives: The Injustice Of The Marital Exemption In Ohio’S Sexual Offenses, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article argues that Ohio's marital rape exemption fails to vindicate the sexual autonomy and physical integrity of all persons in the state to be free from non-consensual sexual conduct. This protection from unwanted, non-consensual sexual violation should be afforded to Ohioans regardless of the victim's marital relationship to the perpetrator. Furthermore, the state's sexual offense provisions are plagued with inconsistencies and illogical distinctions with respect to the marital immunity. Ohio's partially abolished marital exemption cannot be justified under any coherent theory of justice, appears to survive merely due to inertia, and certainly does not serve the best interests of …

A Curious Omission From Ohio's Rape Statute: Sexual Assault When The Victim Consents To Medical Or Dental Drugging, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

No abstract provided.

"Because Ladies Lie": Eliminating Vestiges Of The Corroboration And Resistance Requirements From Ohio's Sexual Offenses, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In response to alarming statistics about the dearth of rape cases brought to successful fruition, feminist critiques of rape law, and changing attitudes about sexual autonomy, rape and sexual assault statutes in America have undergone enormous revision during the last few decades. The barriers to successful prosecution of rape cases-including the corroboration and resistance requirements-have been slowly eroding in modern statutory law. Despite rampant rape reform, these old-fashioned requirements have been remarkably persistent, and vestiges of them remain in twenty-first-century statutory enactments.

Rape By Drugs: A Statutory Overview And Proposals For Reform, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The methods by which human beings accomplish nonconsensual sexual activity with fellow humans are almost limitless. They use physical force; they beat, choke, and knock their victims unconscious. They kidnap and restrain them. They use weapons and threats of immediate force to subdue their quarry. They come in groups with the superior strength of their number. They exploit the element of surprise. They coerce, extort, and blackmail others into sexual submission. They lie, pretend, impersonate, and defraud, trapping the unwary in webs of deceit. They victimize mentally ill, mentally disabled, physically weak, and physically incapacitated persons. They abuse their positions …

Crossing The Line: Rape-Murder And The Death Penalty, Phyllis L. Crocker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

When a woman is raped and then murdered, it is among the most horrifying of crimes. It is also, often, among the most sensational, notorious, and galvanizing of cases. In 1964, Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered in Queens, New York. Her murder sparked soul-searching across the country because her neighbors heard her cries for help and did not respond: it made us question whether we had become an uncaring people. During the 1970s and 80s a number of serial killers raped and murdered their victims: including Ted Bundy in Florida and William George Bonin, the “Freeway Killer,” in Southern …

Rape By Fraud And Rape By Coercion, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

For more than a century, courts, legislatures, and legal commentators have struggled with the controversial and highly charged question of whether accomplishing sexual intercourse by means of fraud or coercion is blameworthy and appropriately condemnable as rape. In 1986 Professor Susan Estrich suggested that rape law should "prohibit fraud to secure sex to the same extent we prohibit fraud to secure money, and prohibit extortion to secure sex to the same extent we prohibit extortion to secure money." (Susan Estrich, Rape, 95 Yale L. J. 1087, 1120 (1986)). Such suggestion spawned the latest cycle of discussion about this age-old conundrum …